Monday, September 21, 2015

Can native American imagery ever be used tastefully by non-Indian masses?

I
couldn’t help but wonder this past weekend about the use of Indian (I don't mean anyone from India)
imagery by the masses.

How offensive are the Guides ...

The
Chicago Tribune reported a story about a suburban LaGrange-based youth program
that uses native imagery (including costumes, chants, drumming, etc.) in an
attempt to teach the area’s young people proper moral values.

IT
SOUNDS NICE, except that the Indian symbols are not real. They’re generic. And
now, some people who really are of American Indian ethnic origins are taking
offense, saying this group’s attempts at cultural education are meaningless and
potentially harmful.

... and their Princess counterparts

This
is bound to spur the debate from people who claim the Indians are overreacting
to harmless fun because they don’t like having their own long-established
beliefs challenged.

But
does it have to be?

With
all the athletic teams (including our city’s very own Chicago Blackhawks
Stanley Cup championship team) that rely on Indian-implying names, could it be
possible for such images to be used in a way that they really do pay tribute to
the people whose ancestors really are native to this country?

Decades of absurdity in the name of baseball

PERSONALLY,
I THINK the answer is “yes.” But I also think that respectful images would be
so unrecognizable to the masses that they wouldn’t get it.

Because
there wouldn’t be any of that “Tomahawk Chop” nonsense (think Atlanta Braves or
Florida State Seminoles). Those headdresses and face paint worn by certain
Blackhawks fans would wither away.

And
as for Chief Wahoo (the Cleveland Indians this weekend wore the block-letter “C”
on their caps when they fought the Chicago White Sox to see which team will
finish this season in Third Place, rather than Fourth, although the logo could
be seen all over Cleveland’s Progressive Field) and the Washington Redskins (a
phrase always meant to be a slur implying that those Indian people weren’t
really human), those would be so blatantly offensive that only the biggest
nitwits would support them.

An attempt at respect in Washington state

It’s
a shame they’re only at the minor league level, but I actually think the
Spokane Indians (a long-time franchise in Washington state that currently plays
in the Class A Northwest League) are on the right track.

THE
CITY ITSELF is named for a tribe once native to the area, and when making sure
their team logos weren’t offensive, they worked out a deal with the Spokane
Nation.

That
deal included an alternate team logo that includes writing in Salish – the tribe’s
native language. It shows a certain respect for the tribe, which also is
significant to the non-Indian population of Spokane (86 percent white, and only
2 percent American Indian) since it tells about their city’s origins.

Although
without any feathers, tomahawks or other generic images, I’m sure some people
are too clueless to realize what is happening.

An
attitude that I’m sure is common to Chicago, where I wonder how many people
realize the significance of Black Hawk.

What would Chief Black Hawk think?

HE
WAS THE chief of Sac and Fox tribe (whose survivors are now heavily located in
Oklahoma) who actually led a war against U.S. troops because he resented the
idea that his people were being told they had to leave their native home along
the Mississippi River in Illinois and Iowa.

His
forces were defeated (largely because even his own tribal people weren’t
unified about what should be done), and after a short prison term, but was
eventually turned into a symbol of unity of Indians being subservient to their
white neighbors.

By
now, he’s nothing more than an Indian head that symbolizes generations of bad
hockey playing – three Stanley Cup championships in six years doesn’t erase
decades of failure. The actual image of an Indian head doesn’t come across as
comical as some (he’s no Chief Wahoo).

But
I’m sure the people who will defend the Blackhawks to the death are the same
ones who want to believe the Indian Guides program (which even its one-time
YMCA sponsor now backs away from) is worth an equal battle.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.